Author's Note: Thanks for your patience with the one day delay posting, guys! Sunday definitely works out a bit better for me with my schedule the way it is, so It probably won't move again any time soon.
Guess who finally got caught up reading the manga? This author did! XD You guys really weren't kidding when you said the manga had taken a turn that was surprisingly similar to the patch my fic took o_O Like...weirdly similar. Who knows, maybe I have a secret mind-link with Mashima? Maybe if I can concentrate hard enough I can send him subliminal messages to make NaLu canon...
A girl can dream, can't she?
Anyways, hope you enjoy! Please make sure to drop a review if you do! They feed my voracious muse and keep me writing!
One Wish
Chapter 34: Hey Brother
"Sting, this really isn't necessary. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself," Yukino insisted for the umpteenth as she glanced back over her shoulder at the dragon slayer in question.
The Sabertooth master scowled at her in reply, arms folded resolutely over his chest as he replied "There's a bunch of assassins running around looking for those keys of yours. No way I'm letting you out of my sight until those fairy idiots have this sorted out, so stop dropping hints that you want me to go."
"It wasn't precisely a hint, Master, but alright," the celestial spirit mage replied with a chuckle as she went back to examining the produce laid out on the stand before her "Still, a girl is bound to develop an ego, having a famous guild master and the entire Thunder God Tribe accompanying her on her every errand," she added lightly.
Sting flushed, though it was less from embarrassment than irritation at the presence of the notorious Fairy Tail team. Glancing around the bustling marketplace, the white dragon slayer picked each one of them out of the crowd. To all appearances, they seemed to simply be browsing the stalls, but the man knew that they were there to help him keep an eye on Yuki.
It still irked him that the princess had apparently approached Fairy Tail for their assistance in whatever matter involved these damned assassins, and not included Sabertooth. The other guild wasn't the only one with a mage that had been targeted, so shouldn't they be allowed to help as well? Natsu and Lucy's visit almost a week before had left the young guild master with more questions than answers.
"Sting?"
The blonde man glanced down, surprised to see Yukino standing directly before him, brown eyes full of concern "What?" he asked, discomfited by the way his heart fluttered in his chest when she looked at him that way.
"The princess will trust us enough to help her some day," she said, making Sting wonder briefly if she could read his mind "In the mean time, we'll continue working hard to prove just how much the guild has changed from it's old ways," the woman continued with a reassuring smile.
"Right," the dragon slayer agreed, forcing a smile to his face for her sake. Her own widened, and she turned back to her errands, prestigious escort in tow.
As soon as the celestial mage's back was turned, though, Sting's frown returned as his thoughts strayed back to Lucy and Natsu's last visit before they had left on a ship with the rest of their team to...who knew where. All they had been willing to tell him is that they were investigating leads regarding the source of the assassination attempts at the request of the princess.
Their offer of extra manpower for keeping Yukino safe in the meantime had offended the short tempered master at first, causing him to turn them down outright. A combination of coaxing from Yuki and Rogue, along with the strangely grim expression on Natsu's face had eventually served to change his mind, though.
"I don't know where you get off, marching in here and making me accept Fairy Tail assistance for protecting one of our own," Sting had growled under his breath to Natsu when the flow of conversation had lead Lucy, Yuki, and Rogue a little ways from them.
Black eyes turned to regard the blonde slayer, and Sting had been struck by their intensity, as though the man had been weighing his next words very carefully indeed. The look robbed him of all ire as he waited for the other man to speak.
Finally, Natsu had left him with the heartfelt, though ominous, words "Take care of her, Sting."
"You! Who do you-" the Sabertooth master had begun, though his sharp rejoinder had died on his lips before he could even fully voice it. Instead, he swallowed hard, and nodded, teeth clenched so tight it hurt.
Before either man could say more, Lucy had turned to Sting and said "Master has asked Laxus and his team to help you. One or all of them will be around whenever you guys go out, though they won't approach unless something happens."
After that, Sting had put up one more token resistance, but he had already resigned himself to accepting their help. Something about the way Natsu had said those words, and the way the other man had wrapped one arm protectively around Lucy as they had left wouldn't allow him to argue. It had struck a new sort of fear into his heart, something he was reminded of every time he looked at Yukino now.
As the man thought of her, he glanced around again, and a frisson of terror shot down his spine when he did not immediately spot her. He had only looked away for a second...
Sting's heart nearly stopped in that moment, only to stutter to a start once more when he saw her only a few feet away at a fruit cart. Her eyes met his over a pile of apples and she smiled at him, raising one eyebrow in question, no doubt wondering what had him staring so.
He lifted one hand weakly to wave off her unspoken question, and the woman's other eyebrow went up. Before he could take so much as a step towards her, though, a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention.
Laxus was barreling towards them at full tilt, making the white dragon slayer's eyes go wide in alarm and look around for what had set the other man off.
It was only then he realized that the shadow along the wall of the building behind Yuki wasn't empty.
"Yuki, get down!" Sting shouted, lunging into motion as Laxus sprinted past him. He felt as though he were moving through molasses, every motion sluggish as the world around him seemed to slow down to a crawl.
Yukino's eyes went wide, and she spun, just as an arm, clad all in dark blue, snaked out and grabbed her.
She screamed.
A cold wind blew across the surface of the ocean waves, making Natsu, still wrapped in Lucy's arms and half sprawled across her legs, shiver. Frowning worriedly, the woman tightened her grip on him and looked around at their motley crew.
Gray sat at the rear of the boat, hand on the rudder as he guided the ship across the waves. His wet clothes clung to him, but he didn't seem the least bothered by the chill, which didn't surprise her.
Juvia already looked perfectly dry, something Lucy couldn't help but find amusing, though an idea did occur to her when her eyes drifted to the the others, who all looked varying degrees of miserable now that the glow of victory had worn off.
"Juvia, can you dry everyone off?" Lucy asked "Half of us are like to catch a cold or worse if we stay wet."
The bluenette blinked and glanced around at her friends, the source of their discomfort only just then seeming to register.
"Oh! Of course!" she said, then turned towards Gray, who eyed her curiously as the woman waved a hand over him. The water from his clothes and body lifted away all at once, leaving the man's hair shockingly fluffy and standing on end.
Juvia was so surprised by this, that she lost her concentration with a squeak and dropped the water, splashing the ice mage and soaking him all over again.
"Seriously?" he sputtered, wiping water from his face.
"S-sorry!" Juvia exclaimed, biting on her lip to keep from giggling when she began her work again, sending the resulting water over the edge of the boat and back into the ocean.
Seeing the way his friends were staring at him, Gray's hand went self-consciously to his face, and then his head "What?"
"You look like some kind of demonic dandelion," Gajeel snickered as the ice mage grimaced and tried to flatten his hair down with his free hand once more.
"It looks very soft," Erza told Gray in what was no doubt supposed to be a comforting manner.
"Thanks," he grumbled before finally giving up with a huff and turning his attention back to steering the boat. By this point, with the storm gone, the waves had died down, leaving them with a much smoother ride than a few minutes before.
"It's strange, I feel like the sun should have already been down for hours," Wendy remarked absently as she looked to where the sun was only just beginning to dip below the horizon while Juvia went about her task with quick efficiency.
"I know what you mean," Lucy agreed.
Natsu was one of the last to have his clothes dried, and he sagged with relief against Lucy when the last of the water finally left him, only to shiver and curl in on himself.
"Ugh, this ice is cold," he complained.
"No shit," Gajeel said with a roll of his eyes "It's ice, dumbass."
"Anyone bitching about the ice gets to fucking swim to Telmare," Gray cut in before Natsu could make a retort to the iron dragon slayer.
Suppressing smile, Lucy released her hold on Natsu and gently pushed him out of her lap.
"Hey, wait, come back," he wheedled and tried to insert himself back in her lap.
"Will you give me like, two seconds?" the blonde said with a roll of her eyes as she stripped off her jacket and laid it on the bottom of the boat at the base of the mast. She then seated herself on it, with her back resting against the recycled boom, and gestured for Natsu to join her.
The rose haired man's face lit up at this development and he eagerly moved to join her. He took a minute to decide which way he was going to lay, before finally settling himself between Lucy's legs with his back to her, and his head resting on her ample chest.
Just as she went to wrap her arms around him, though, her boyfriend sat up again and struggled out of his own jacket, then threw it over them like a blanket. Natsu sighed happily to himself as he settled back once more, pausing only to pull the woman's legs in tighter around him to maximize their points of body contact.
"Aw yeah, that's better," he muttered happily to himself as he wiggled a little against her to achieve maximum comfort.
"Oh yeah?" Lucy mused, arching an eyebrow at the man's antics before finally slipping her arms under his jacket to wrap around him "Anything else I can get you now that you've made yourself at home? A hot towel? Some tea maybe?"
"Yeah that'd be awesome, actually," Natsu replied with a teasing grin that made Lucy lift her eyes heavenward in a silent prayer for patience. She pressed a kiss to the top of his head all the same, though, before giving his magic the little tug that would increase her body heat. She was running low after the fight earlier, but it took little power, and the resulting warmth that seeped into Natsu almost immediately eased the shivers that had wracked his frigid body.
The awkward clearing of a throat had the both of them looking up in surprise to see Erza standing over them, now dry, but struggling to suppress shivers of her own.
"I, um..." the requip mage began, a blush creeping across her pale cheeks as she hugged herself in an attempt to ward off the chill that had seeped into her very bones.
Dry they may all be now, but that certainly didn't make them warm. Juvia and Gray were the only ones immune, apparently. Gajeel meanwhile, was fighting manfully to pretend he wasn't freezing as he stood staring out at the sea. Wendy didn't seem quite as bad off, but she still looked tired after all the healing she had been forced to do, and Lucy was pretty sure she saw a tremor run through the girl's narrow shoulders as she watched her.
Heaving a sigh that was tempered by an exasperated laugh, Lucy said "Alright, huddle up, you guys. The more the merrier."
"What? Says who?" Natsu exclaimed, expression dangerously close to a pout as he glared possessively up at her.
"Oh hush, you'll warm up faster with more bodies," she said as a look of relief bloomed across Erza's face. Before the requip mage could join them, though, Lucy said "Wait! Armor off first! I really don't want to get poked."
"Oh, of course," the red head said, and quickly banished her Heart Kreuz armor, replacing it with simple, though warm looking, clothing.
The older woman tugged off her coat and settled in at Lucy's right side to press flush against her, then followed Natsu's example and used her coat as a blanket. Wendy hurriedly joined in on the other side with her own coat. Both women heaved a sigh of relief at the increase in warmth, and Lucy obliged all of them by heating the air around them a little more.
Realizing that they were still shy one person, the blonde glanced back at Gajeel and said "Come on, that means you too, Gajeel. Everybody can tell you're cold, so quit faking and get over here already."
The iron dragon slayer flushed and scowled "I don't have to be! I can use my Iron Dragon Scales and be immune-" he began, only to be cut off by Gray.
"Don't you dare, moron! You want to flip the boat?" the ice mage snapped "Now quit bitching and just go join the damn cuddle pile."
"Oh shut-up, I'll do what I want, snow cone!" Gajeel snarled back. Luckily, though,what he wanted did not involve overturning their precarious craft. He swore under his breath and glanced over at the pile of his friends. Lucy had clamped her hand firmly over Natsu's mouth to muffle his laughing, and Erza had pressed her lips into a thin white line in an attempt to cover a smile. Wendy, on the other hand, already appeared fast asleep.
"I don't know about you, but I'm joining them," Lily remarked from down by his feet before following after Happy and Carla, who were apparently of the same mind.
"Make room for me!" Happy exclaimed brightly, jumping into the pile of bodies, making Natsu grunt when the cat hit him right in the gut.
"Oi, Happy," the former slayer grumbled, but allowed his blue friend to crawl under his coat with minimal resistance.
"Ooh, this is toasty," Happy purred pleasantly as he poked his head back out again, nearly bumping Natsu in the chin.
"Gah! Watch the claws!" the man objected loudly with a wince when the exceed wiggled about to make himself comfortable.
Lucy snorted "Now you know the feeling."
"Yeah well at least I don't have claws."
"No, just ridiculously pointy elbows," she said with a wince as her boyfriend shifted himself and wound up digging said elbow into her hip.
"Oh, sorry."
"Will you quiet down? Wendy is sleeping," Carla hissed over the noise from where she had curled up between Lucy and her petite friend.
"Here, Lily, would you like to sit with me?" Erza invited the black exceed with a smile, lifting the edge of her coat invitingly.
"Don't mind if I do. Thank you, Erza," the cat said with a smile and settled himself in, pointedly ignoring the way Gajeel glared at him.
"Traitor," he grumbled, but strayed closer to the people pile all the same "Where am I even supposed to fit, anyways?" the man asked grumpily and gave Natsu's leg a kick.
"Overboard if you don't watch it," the rose haired mage groused back, pulling his leg out of the way of another hit from Gajeel's steel toed boot.
Lucy pinched Natsu's ear to curb his tongue, then looked up at Gajeel and said "I'll scoot forward and you can squeeze in behind me so you don't get left out at the edge," in an accommodating tone.
Gajeel flushed at the offer, but the woman was already moving while Natsu tried to object.
"he can't sit there! I'm your boyfriend, you should lean against me!"
"Well then move and Gajeel can sit in my lap," Lucy remarked with deliberate blandness, knowing neither man would ever go for it.
The iron dragon slayer made a strangled noise while Natsu said "What? No way!"
"Well then quit making a fuss and scoot," Lucy huffed, patience running out "Gods you get whiny when you're tired!"
"I do not," Natsu grumbled, but finally acceded to his girlfriend's command, ignoring Happy's quiet snickering.
"You really do though," the exceed agreed.
Natsu ignored this, and glared up at Gajeel when the iron dragon slayer still hesitated, saying "Well hurry up, would you? You're letting all the damn heat out!"
The other man's words seemed to finally force the dark haired man into a decision. He sneered down at Natsu in an attempt to mask his own embarrassment as he sidled in behind Lucy, moving carefully so as not to jar the sleeping Wendy. When he had seated himself with his back to the make-shift mast, Lucy squeezed between his legs pushed her back up against his chest.
"Good grief, you're almost as bad as the mast," she remarked as she made herself comfortable before everyone else proceeded to do the same now that the proverbial keystone was in place.
"Who do you think I am, Droy?"
"Well he'd certainly make for a better back rest," Lucy teased, grinning at the slayer from over her shoulder, making him snort in amusement.
Quiet settled over the group with the exception of Gray and Juvia, who held a quiet conversation over the rudder. Lucy could have heard it easily, but she intentionally ignored it as those curled up around her settled in for some shut-eye.
Out of nowhere, Happy giggled, and at Lucy's curious look, he said "I was just thinking we're kinda like a doughnut, with you as the creamy filling, Lucy!"
"Oi, hands off Lucy's creamy filling, it's delicious and I'm not sharing," Natsu said, already half asleep.
He yelped when Lucy, Erza, and Gajeel all smacked him simultaneously, and demanded "Ow! What was that for?!"
"You know what!"
While her fellow members of the 'Lucy Doughnut' fell into a deep sleep almost immediately, Lucy herself dozed fitfully, plagued by the same nightmare that had driven her from her hammock the night before. It came to her in flashes of fire and blood that would startle her briefly into waking, before dragging her back into it's depths for more.
With a shaking hand, Lucy gently rolled Natsu onto his back, lifeless gray eyes staring up at her, unseeing, from his bloodied face. Shock froze her tears and allowed her to reach out with the soot darkened fingers of her left hand to gently brush his eyelids closed. Now, as she knelt in the dust of a once great city beside his shattered form, she could almost believe he was only sleeping.
"Lucy."
A familiar voice startled the blonde into the waking world once more, and she looked around blearily until she was able to focus on Gray as he crouched beside Erza.
"Gray," she said, stirring a little beneath the pile of bodies around her as her mind struggled to change gears "Something wrong?" Lucy asked, spotting Juvia at the ship's rudder, steering them confidently over the waves.
A small frown tugged at the ice mage's lips as he replied "You were dreaming. Didn't want you to wake the others."
"Oh, thanks," the former celestial mage said with an apologetic smile as she relaxed back against Gajeel once more. The iron dragon slayer surprised her by looping one arm across her shoulders from behind, making her look up at him curiously. He appeared deeply asleep, though, so she decided not to comment, a fond smile playing across her full lips before turning her attention back to Gray.
"Come to join the party?" she asked and yawned, eyes feeling heavy again already.
"If you don't mind," Gray admitted, looking vaguely awkward as he glanced away from her and out across the open sea.
"Have at it. I know you don't get cold, but I'm sure we're more comfortable than the bottom of the boat," Lucy joked.
"That's what Juvia thought too," Gray mused, humor returning to his features as he settled himself down by Erza and Lily. The pair shifted unconsciously to accommodate him.
When her friend had finally made himself comfortable, Lucy said "Goodnight, Gray," as she drifted off to sleep once more.
"'Night, Lucy."
The next time Lucy woke, the sky seemed impossibly dark and full of stars in that brief window between moondown and sunrise.
She was sweating and trembling as she struggled to forget the screams from her nightmare, desperately wishing she could get a decent nights sleep without being plagued by horrific visions. She was no stranger to nightmares, not after all she had seen and experienced since joining Fairy Tail...but this...this was new.
A painful tingling from her legs as she stirred told her that Natsu had succeeded in sending her limbs straight to sleep over the course of the night. Eyes narrowing against the dark, she examined her boyfriend with an intensity that would have alarmed him had he been awake to witness it.
Finding comfort in the gentle rise and fall of the man's chest, Lucy gradually relaxed. Absently brushing a few stray locks of rose colored hair from his eyes, she noted how long it was starting to get. It was almost to the point that his bangs were no longer able to stand on end of their own stubborn accord, weighed down as they were by their own length.
Her lips twitched up into a smile before pulling down into a pained grimace when the tingling in her legs intensified uncomfortably.
Slowly, and with great care, Lucy maneuvered her way out of the pile of bodies, nearly toppling when she was forced to put weight on her numb feet. In the process of carefully shifting Natsu as gently as she could, the blonde realized that Gray had been replaced by Juvia in the spot next to Erza. Looking up, she saw that the ice mage was back at the rudder once more, alternating between keeping an eye on the horizon, and watching her game of wizard tetris.
In the end, Erza and Wendy wound up leaning against Gajeel, while Natsu's head wound up in the iron dragon slayer's lap. She knew neither man would be happy about this development if they noticed, but by that point her legs were smarting badly enough that she simply didn't care. She did, however, find herself wishing Reedus were there to paint a portrait of the sight for her to keep and frame.
Stifling a groan as she straightened, Lucy took a moment to stretch before hobbling over to where Gray sat, then plopped down beside him on the make-shift bench he had made for himself.
"You sleep long?" she asked the man while she tried to massage some life back into her legs.
"Long enough," he answered as he turned his dark eyes to her, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"What?" Lucy asked suspiciously, pausing in her work when she saw him looking at her.
He was quiet for a moment before finally asking in an offhanded manner "You always dream so much?"
The blonde blinked at the question, debating for a moment on whether or not to answer, before finally admitting "Not usually, no. It started last night, I guess. I had this awful dream, and now it keeps coming back every time I close my eyes..."
Frowning, Lucy dragged her gaze from her friend's and looked skyward, picking out constellations to distract herself from the pain in her legs, and the fear in her heart that her nightmares conjured.
Brow furrowing at the obvious exhaustion in his friend's voice, Gray asked in a quiet tone "Wanna talk about it?"
Folding her hands in her lap, Lucy twined her fingers around each other fitfully as she considered her answer to the man's thoughtful question. Finally, she said "No. No I don't think I do," she looked at him with a pained smile and continued "I don't remember much anyways."
Gray replied with a noncommittal grunt as he turned his attention to navigating them through a rough patch of water. They sat in companionable silence while he worked, until they had reached calm seas once more.
"Well, talk about something, then, so I don't fall asleep," he told her, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye "If you're gonna sit there taking up space, you might as well make yourself useful."
The command startled an incredulous laugh out of the blonde, and she was forced to clap a hand over her own mouth to keep from waking their friends.
When she had herself under control once more, she lowered it and smiled at Gray as she said "Yeah, alright then."
When the blonde didn't start talking right away, Gray raised an eyebrow at her and asked "Well?"
Lucy swatted his arm and rolled her eyes as she looked around for some subject of discussion. Attention falling to a certain bluenette mage, her eyes lit with inspiration and she asked "So, what do you think of Juvia?"
"W-what?" Gray stammered, so startled by the question that he jerked on the rudder convulsively, and made their little craft veer hard to port.
"Hey, watch it!" Lucy cried, grabbing his hand and pulling it back towards her to right the boat's course.
The ice mage made no comment, but did have the grace to look a little embarrassed by his own outburst "What kind of question is that anyways? I said I wanted you to talk, not an inquisition."
"What, you want me to tell you a story or something?" Lucy asked, raising her eyebrows at the man.
"Yeah, I guess," Gray said with a shrug "You're good at stories."
"Thanks," Lucy said, amused by the lengths the man would go to to avoid talking about their friend "But I don't want to. I want to know what you think about Juvia."
Pointedly refusing to look her way, the man answered unhappily "Well go back to bed then and we can all drown when I fall asleep at the wheel."
"It's a rudder, not a wheel," Lucy corrected with a wicked smile that he found eerily similar to her boyfriend's "Besides, I could always just stay here and pinch you every time you start to drift off," she pointed out.
Gray scowled at her, but the blonde only smiled in return, completely un-phased. Finally, he caved, saying "Ugh, you're horrible. Like the little sister I never wanted."
Lucy threw her head back and laughed again, long golden hair tumbling down her back as it pulled free of her coat's hood.
When she finally calmed again, the woman grinned up at Gray and wiped a few stray tears of mirth from her cheeks and asked "Yeah? Well, how do you think I feel? I've got a compulsive stripper for a big brother."
The ice mage rolled his eyes at her accusation, though couldn't repress the small smile that pulled at his pale lips when she happily claimed him as her family. His initial words had simply tumbled out unchecked, ruffled by her question as he had been, and in their wake, he had been half-afraid that she would balk at the thought of being 'related' to him. That Lucy had accepted him so readily made him unexpectedly...happy.
While the entire guild generally considered itself one big family, there were inevitably some people he was more intimate with than others. Lucy was one of the girls that he felt closest to, with perhaps only Erza beating her out, if only because he and the indomitable red head had grown up together. If Lucy was his little sister, then Erza was the entire team's bossy big sister who would fight hell or high water to protect them all.
The gentle bump of Lucy's shoulder against his pulled Gray from his reverie, and he focused on the blonde beside him once more. She was smiling up at him in an impish fashion that made him feel vaguely uneasy.
"So, come on then, tell your little sister about Juvia, hmm?" Lucy said with a grin. Gray's unexpected confession of familial feelings towards her had driven all the fear and worry inspired by her nightmares from her mind. They had been replaced by an overwhelming warmth and fondness for the man at her side. They'd been through a lot together since she had joined the guild over a year before, almost as much as she and Natsu had. Finally having a name to put to their relationship beyond 'friend' felt...nice.
"Gods you're a pain," Gray groaned, throwing back his head and refusing to look at her. He could practically feel her eyes burning a hole in the side of his head, though, and he knew her well enough to be certain that she wasn't going to let up until he'd given in.
Heaving an exasperated sigh, the ice mage dropped his head and grumbled resentfully as color flared in his cheeks "Fine. I think she's great, okay?"
Lucy remained quiet for a minute, clearly expecting him to continue. When he didn't though, she demanded "What, that's it? 'She's great'? What kind of half-assed answer is that? I had a great sandwich before we left Magnolia, Gray. Great isn't a word you use to describe a person! Not by itself, at least."
"Well what do you want me to say then?" the ice mage demanded, struggling not to squirm in his seat under the weight of Lucy's glare.
"Well I don't know! How about you start with why you think she's great!" the blonde exclaimed, exasperated.
"Will you keep your voice down," he hissed at her, eyes darting to where their friends lay sleeping nearby.
Lucy rolled her eyes, but shut her mouth and looked at him expectantly again until, slowly, hesitantly, Gray began to speak once more.
"I guess she's great because...I don't know...she's strong? And reliable too, in her own way," he admitted. Gray paused for a moment as he put a more concerted effort into sorting his complicated thoughts on the water mage before continuing "Most of all, though, I think she's very caring," his brow furrowed as he added "A little too caring, maybe."
"What makes you say that?" Lucy asked curiously as she watched the ice mage mull over her question.
"I dunno," he said with a helpless shrug "Just look at the way she follows me around all the time."
"I know it's a bit much sometimes, but-" Lucy began, but was cut off when Gray shook his head and continued.
"No, it's not how much she does it," he began, though paused and added "granted it gets kind of ...weird sometimes. I turn around and she's just there. I have no idea how she does it."
"Neither do I, now you mention it," Lucy admitted with a speculative frown. Juvia really had taken her stalking of Gray to a level that could almost be regarded an artform. If the assassins that had attacked her weeks previous had had the water mage's talents, she would have been dead in her bed without even noticing it happen.
Gray shook himself and said "I just don't get why she lo-likes me enough to literally follow me all over creation," he explained with an almost frantic hand wave in an attempt to mask his near slip.
Realizing that they had finally revealed an underlying issue that she hadn't even realized was there, Lucy asked in a slow, quiet voice "So, wait, you just...don't get why she would like you enough to want to follow you around?"
"Well, yeah," Gray said, glancing at her, embarrassment turned to curiosity in the light of how Lucy was looking at him. It wasn't quite pity in her eyes, but it was something very close.
"Oh, Gray," she sighed as a sad smile spread over her fair features. The former celestial mage pulled her hair around so it fell over her shoulder, and began to braid it absently as she lost herself in thought. That Gray might genuinely not understand how someone could love him as much as Juvia so clearly did was a road bump she certainly hadn't expected. He always seemed so confident.
Still, considering how hard on himself he had always been over Ul's death and, much later, Ultear's sacrifice, she supposed she really shouldn't have been surprised.
Apparently Juvia wasn't the only one that needed to learn to love herself before being able to do the same for another.
"Where do I even begin?"
Author's Note: Thanks for reading, guys! This week's chapter title is inspired by Avicii's song 'Hey Brother', which is super great and I highly recommend!
I figured a bit of a 'cool down' (or more accurately considering the contents, 'warm-up'? XD) chapter was called for after the madness of the last few, haha. Hope you enjoyed! Please remember to drop a comment, they really help me keep writing!